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hey hows it going i just got done rebuilding my shovel from bottom to top the only thing i didn't touch was my valve guides and over the weekend i notice it was smokin a lot so i pulled the exhaust and saw that there was a ton of oil around the valve guide so i pulled the heads to go get new valve guides pressed in and while they where off i wanted to check my cylinders to see how they where doing and i noticed a lot of scoring already on the walls so i pulled the cylinders off to check the pistons and they fine also the scoring on the cylinders i cant catch a finger nail on anything if i had my eyes closed i wouldn't be able to tell you where the scoring was. i know i should have done a leak down test and compression test before i tore it down but i wasn't expecting to see all this going on. I don't know what could have caused this maybe over heating, contaminants in the oil? I only have a little over 100 miles on the rebuild, so i just wanted to get some opinions if i should re hone and get new rings, .010 over and new pistons and rings, or clean everything again and put it back together and forget about it. it started easy 1 to 2 kicks ran great only prob was it was smoking. before the top end went together i cleaned everything thoroughly. measured all the clearances, ring end gaps and everything checked out great, i also broke it in per S&S manual. these are brand new cylinders and pistons standard bore. thanks in advance!!!! front cylinder front cylinder front piston front piston rear piston rear piston
Did you set/check ring gap prior to install? First front piston picture shows ring clocking wrong, should be every 120 degrees, that shouldn't cause the scoring tho
At 100 miles you haven't hardly broken in anything concerning the cylinders. If you'd run it another 500 miles, 90% of what you're seeing wouldn't be there.
You say brand new cylinders. Were they pre honed or was it final honed after you got them? If you're confident they are "round" I'd give it a light scuff with a ball flex hone. Otherwise, use a ridged hone (Sunnen etc) Do new rings regardless (they're cheap) and run it.
first the cylinders look as if you used them out of the box from china as the scribble instead of a cross hatch is in the visual - we use a sunnen CK15 to hone any cylinder before we use it
the pistons look as if u went new vo kieth black small block chevy design pistons in hypereutectic 91l2 to 1 compression - the sales pitch on those is really great to bad they dont live up to the sales pitch -
original piston material was cast alloy - not forged not cast iron not hypereutectic blends with super close piston to wall clearance's for water cooled engines - its a old design that only works with old design stuff - today we set the piston to wall at .003 to .0035 - with cast pistons ( note rings today are only pre sized not file fit like a race engine its out of the box use only ) the book did not know we were going to use corn alcohol in the gas back then - then we also now use a moly top ring and only hastings rings - no cast iron rings are a thing of the past and do not do the job today
dont think i am bashing what you did but this is the real deal next time ask on this site before you spend money
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shovelhead cylinder scoring fresh rebuild
